Posted
by
simonikeron Thursday May 27, 2004 @07:01PM
from the hurrah-for-fruit-penetration dept.

Thanks to EvilAvatar for pointing to the official Produce Panic webpage, which now has a free PC download (23mb, 5 maps) of "the first Penny Arcade [themed] game for the PC", based on the Garage GamesTorque engine, in which the player can "run (or fly) around as your favorite juicer in an all out death match, or play cooperatively with friends and compete against other teams of Fruit F@*kers to capture their receipt so they can be taken back to the store." The guys at Penny Arcade seem to approve, noting "There is even a movie theater in hell which, in addition to Tomb Raider and the Tetris Movie, also shows the latest strip up on the screen", and mentioning: "It is free, as I mentioned, but the guys at Plan B Games are accepting donations for their work - if you enjoyed it, please let them know."

Pretty much. I think you'll get modded down for it, but I agree. Penny Arcade is of the branch of humor that thinks adding swearing to anything will likely make it funnier. In reality, it only shows how lame your joke really is. That, and the jokes play to a very small audience on incredibly topical humor.

But swearing does make it funnier. They're charged words. It's the reason the best stand up comics are on late-night HBO and not prime-time Comedy Central (with some exceptions, of course; and Jon Stewart is frequently bleeped).

I used to think Bob Saget was the world's stupidest comic from watching him on Full House and America's Funniest Home Videos, until I saw him in Half Baked, and then saw his stand-up act. The man's actually funny if he can swear and be perverted.

Penny Arcade is of the branch of humor that thinks adding swearing to anything will likely make it funnier.

No, not at all. Penny Arcade thinks adding swearing to a serious and relevant discussion will make it funnier. And it does. It works very well in fact. See: George Carlin Standup Comedy.

The jokes DO play to a very small audience. But I am a gamer, much like them, and I do find the jokes funny and the comments relevant. If you think it's lame, fine. But the intended audience doesn't. And thankfully, the small audience is who they care about, rather than trying to water things down and "diversify" their audience like the rest of the corporate world.

I tend to agree--although there are some real gems, the day to day comics are about as funny as daily funnies in the paper, just focused at a particular group (gamers).

What keeps me going back three days a week is the news updates. These guys almost always have something relevant to say about games; I consider their recommendations a step below "friends" and about ten steps above the likes of IGN and other gaming mags.

In short: the comic is usually good for a chuckle, sometimes more, but what the site is really about is gaming--and to that end I think they do a great job.

Oh, come on. Here's a hint: the joke is not in the first panel. Singles is used to introduce the subject of the joke. Gabe is showing frustration, but it's a bit of a leap to go from that to "the joke is that Singles sucks". There is a difference between frustration and condemnation.

The Double-You Bee: Recent WB releases and/or the review system.

And/or? You can't even decide what the comic is deriding. Let me spell it out for you: the comi

You did say "I was going to list a batch of recent comics that didn't fit into your description, but I haven't found one yet...". It is pretty clear you accept his point.

However, you'll have to agree that they're not clear examples against the original poster's assertion.

I think they are. Neither of them clearly voice the opinion that anything sucks, and certainly neither of them use that as the main joke. There are also plenty of other examples - the Cardboard Samurai and Fruit Fu

I was working backwards from the current one. I posted to/. as I reached the drunk bitch sketch. I know a few earlier than that was a very funny one titled "How to win friends and influence Bats" (or similar, that's from memory), which doesn't include anything sucking. I was, however, suprised at how may of the comics do have a high degree of "X sucks", whether it's the underlying theme or the punchline.

...but the tube makes an appearance in Legacy of Kain: Defiance for PS2. From psx2codes.com:

At any time while playing as Kain, pause the game and enter: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, R2, L2, TRIANGLE, DOWN, and CIRCLE.

You will exit the pause menu and Kain will utter "Beware the tube!" For the rest of the game, Kain will fight with a cardboard tube instead of the Reaver blade. This code will only work for Kain, not Raziel.

Gabe is my next door neighbor. Kinda funny, I get home, my wife says we have new neighbors and hes a cartoonist. She says, this is the name of his cartoon and hands me a piece of paper. I looked at the piece of paper and about fainted when it said "Penny Arcade". (Wife doesn't read comics, go figure..)

So I grabbed a wrapping paper tube and knocked on the door, he signed it (google Cardboard Tube Samurai) and started talking to him. I mentioned I read his cartoon's daily with a script called "DailyScripts". Lets just say he wasn't happy that I use a script that downloads his comic and he didn't get the click through revenue.